The major challenge of NP practice evaluation is to "just do it!" To do it right, one must combine the priorities and the skills of public health research with those of clinical practice. Well-prepared NP students learn to identify key outcomes and assess the quality of their care in order to bring those skills to the workplace. As many experienced NP clinician-educators know, there is often a wide gap between documentation used for clinical practice and data recorded to perform solid research. The lack of valid and reliable clinical data makes the work of quality assessment very complex. Budding clinicians must be taught to think-and record data-like researchers. In Philadelphia, faculty members from several schools are making progress in NP practice and education by working together in the Regional Nursing Center Consortium to identify key variables for quality assessment and to agree upon the definition of those variables and upon performance standards. FNP students in one participating nurse-managed center, Abbottsford Family Practice & Counseling, have the opportunity to use a computerized patient record that contains a structured "pick list" of diagnoses and interventions based on established coding systems. Primary care NP students at the University of Pennsylvania complete projects to survey patient satisfaction and review the accuracy and totality of their clinical documentation. Our goal is to form a cadre of NPs that produce reliable evidence of practice outcomes and are prepared to improve the quality of care. This presentation will describe examples of the work to date. See www.nursing.upenn.edu
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to: 1. Identify issues in collecting reliable data during the course of clinical care. 2. Discuss data elements and documentation techniques that are relevant for quality assessment. 3. Review selected results from NP and student NP practice outcome studies.
Keywords: Nurse Practitioners, Nursing Education
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: (Philadelphia) Regional Nursing Centers Consortium
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Abbottsford Family Practice & Counseling (a nurse-managed center in Phila.)
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: employed at Univ. Penn and Abbottsford